Recipe for a Happy New Year

Take twelve fine, full-grown months; see that these are thoroughly free from old memories of bitterness, rancor and hate, cleanse them completely from every clinging spite; pick off all specks of pettiness and littleness; in short, see that these months are freed from all the past—have them fresh and clean as when they first came from the great storehouse of Time. Cut these months into thirty or thirty-one equal parts. Do not attempt to make up the whole batch at one time (so many persons spoil the entire lot this way) but prepare one day at a time.

Into each day put equal parts of faith, patience, courage, work (some people omit this ingredient and so spoil the flavor of the rest), hope, fidelity, liberality, kindness, rest (leaving this out is like leaving the oil out of the salad dressing— don’t do it), prayer, meditation, and one well-selected resolution. Put in about one teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of folly, a sprinkling of play, and a heaping cupful of good humor.
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To finish our Christmas celebration of 2010, we went to Austin for New Year's Eve weekend and had our Christmas/New Year's with Jennifer and Mark. We had a good time ending out the year with them. We ate lots of goodies that they had made, watched movies, and played Bananagrams.

Paddle Boarding and Fun in Austin

Stand up paddle boarding is getting to be a popular sport in Austin. It's similar to surfing but you stand on a long flat board similar to a surf board and paddle on either side. It's a very good work out and at the same time very relaxing.

 

 

This is our attempt at paddle boarding. This was Jennifer's second trip out with her new board and she's doing great. We were a lot more comfortable in our canoe but it was fun trying out her board. The water felt cold and refreshing and it was very tempting to just jump in and cool off!

We had a great trip!  We love getting together with our children every chance we get!